Economists note that currently up to 40% of gas imported into the Czech Republic comes from Russian.
Some Czech traders continued to import Russian gas in October. The Minister of Industry and Trade of the Republic, Josef Sikela, assured that this was not necessary. This was reported by Echo24.
Economist Lukáš Kovanda said at the weekend that politicians’ claims that the Czech Republic has freed itself from dependence on Russian gas are somewhat contradicted by data from the Lanzot gas transmission station.
“From the beginning of October, the gas at this border station no longer goes from the Czech Republic to Slovakia, as before, but from Slovakia to the Czech Republic. And then in the amount of up to 100 gigawatt-hours per day. Up to 40% of the gas imported into the Czech Republic is from Russia today.” , he emphasized.
According to him, the import of Russian oil to the Czech Republic is also growing. In the first half of this year, the Czech Republic imported the largest volume of Russian oil in any first half of the year since 2010.
“However, it is necessary to perceive this event in a wider context. The Czech Republic now has better protected alternative routes than before the Russian invasion of Ukraine – routes for the import of non-Russian energy sources, or made significant progress in the development of such routes since last year,” – added Kovanda.
Minister Sikela confirmed that some traders continued to import gas from Russia. However, according to him, the fact that the Czech Republic receives Russian gas does not change the fact that the country has finally gotten rid of its dependence on Russian gas.
“Due to recent events, it is necessary to consider whether to introduce restrictive measures at the national level, or continue to coordinate our approach within the entire EU,” he said.
According to him, the import of Russian gas to the EU is not subject to sanctions, because some countries still cannot do without it.
“However, I would consider it correct that end consumers know if they buy gas from suppliers who buy Russian gas,” the Czech official stressed.
However, the information portal Fxstreet refuted the words of the minister. They cited data from Gas Connect Austria, an Austrian gas company specializing in gas transportation and distribution, according to which we are talking about larger volumes: last Friday, imports of Russian gas accounted for 54.4% of total imports, on Saturday – 55.1 %.
However, they note that from January to the end of September, Russian gas imports are truly zero. This fact significantly reduces the annual average.
Let us remind you that the Russian concerns Gazprom in the winter it will provide additional gas volumes to Hungary and China to compensate for the loss of European sales markets after Russian gas was denied due to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Source: korrespondent
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